Memory palaces: OBMI on the things we take home
What travels with us? It is a simple question but, for OBMI, it points towards a more generous future for hospitality design.
The industry has grown skilled at orchestrating experience. Yet the most memorable moments of a stay often take us by surprise – a discovery, a conversation that becomes a friendship. We carry these home as stories, each retelling bringing back a little of how it felt to be there.
What makes a moment worth telling is often small. A flash of awe. A shaded passage opening onto a sunlit courtyard and, for a while, we simply stand and look. A story cannot be designed directly, but architecture can invite one to take root. The focus shifts from what a hotel contains to what it makes possible. Space can become social infrastructure, somewhere guests and neighbours converge, forge routines and make connections to a place.
That changes how hotels are conceived. Designers can test a scheme against a second set of questions. Will it stir emotion? Will people linger, meet, and long to return? Will the building weave into the life around it?
OBMI begins by asking why before how, creating the conditions in which those moments can arise. A great hotel becomes a catalyst, elevating the lives that pass through it. What travels home with us is the story of having belonged there, however briefly, and the feeling that stays long after we leave.
Memory palaces
“At OBMI, during the design process, we really try to think about what triggers an emotion. How do we create experiences where guests leave with a memory instead of a souvenir?”
– Tim Peck, chairman
Designs for life
“The best hotels give communities and guests reasons to share space, connect and make memories. We’re not just designing functions; we’re designing for the life that happens between them.”
– Paul Boldy, associate principal, hospitality
Stories with range
“We believe in storied places and storied destinations. Age is never a limit, so we work on such a huge spectrum of projects, from villages that are thousands of years old to new islands just being built.”
– Tareq El Zayat, CEO, EMEA region
